The invention relates to an apparatus for limiting injuries and damages occurring in the event of a collision, intended for mounting on at least one towing hook or towing hook construction located adjacent a rear side of a vehicle.
In the fleet of cars in the Netherlands, about half of the passenger cars are provided with a towing hook. The towing hook is used only sporadically in the sense that a caravan, boat trailer or trailer is towed therewith, or that a bicycle carrier is mounted thereon. However, the towing hook or towing hook construction always remains mounted on the vehicle, also when it is not used.
The drawback of the unused towing hook or towing hook construction is that it may cause very serious injuries and may easily cause major damage in the event of a collision, even at low speeds. In collisions where the towing hook or towing hook construction contacts another object, such as a vehicle or, even worse, a person, the object hit usually sustains substantial damage caused by a point load. Moreover, the towing hook and towing hook construction itself is relatively undeformable, so that the object hit usually has to fully absorb the blow. Irreparable damage to the bodywork, broken radiators and/or fans, or personal injuries are the result. After a collision, a vehicle whose radiator or fan is damaged is usually no longer capable of moving on. The vehicle hit must then be towed away, which often necessitates a temporary road block. Hence, the direct damage and the consequential damage caused by non-used towing hook constructions are enormous.
Another drawback of the unused towing hook is that is often obstructs one's view of the number plate.
Known apparatuses according to the pre-characterizing portion of claim 1, which at least solve a part of the above-outlined problems, are for instance described in GB-A-1 399 252, DE-A-3 240 264 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,743.
Also known from practice are bicycle carriers that can be mounted on a towing hook of a vehicle.
Research has shown that in the event of a collision, the crushable zones located at the rear of a vehicle are largely rendered inoperative when a towing hook or towing hook construction is mounted on the rear of the vehicle. Indeed, in a collision, the towing hook or towing hook construction is hit first, the forces occurring during the collision being transmitted via the towing hook construction to points of the chassis located more adjacent the front side of the vehicle. All crushable zones located behind these points are rendered inoperative in a collision. The above research has shown that a substantial part of the victims of head-tail collisions in vehicles provided with a towing hook construction remain suffering from a permanent whiplash with bumper parts known from the above-cited patent publications, which parts are mounted on the towing hook, this problem is not solved, because in the known apparatuses the major part of the forces released during a collision are still taken by the towing hook or towing hook construction itself.
In the apparatuses known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,743 and GB-A-1 399 352, a part of the forces occurring during a collision are perhaps not transmitted via the towing hook construction to the points located further to the front, but, as is desired, to the rear of the car. However, these known apparatuses are not universally applicable. As it is, for each towing hook the distance from the hook to the rear of the vehicle is different. Moreover, the shape of the rear side of each vehicle is different.